Areas of ecological value will be affected.

On October 24, Utah senator Orrin Hatch (R) announced that Trump is reducing the size of two national monuments in Utah: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. The decision comes after interior secretary Ryan Zinke recommended the national monuments be shrunk back in September, when he also suggested shrinking Nevada’s Gold Butte and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou.

The Bears Ears monument was created under former President Barack Obama, protecting 1.45 million acres. The Grand Staircase-Escalante was created by former President Bill Clinton in 1996 and encompasses 1.88 million acres. Together, the two Utah monuments cover
more than 3.6 million acres.

Exactly how much of the monuments will be removed from federal protection remains unknown. Reuters reported that Trump is slated to make an official announcement in December while on a trip to Utah. A “coalition of environmental groups” are reportedly suing the Trump administration in response to Zinke’s recommendations.

Previously...

On April 26, President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the Department of the Interior for a review of land protected under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gives national monument designation to specific terrains. The goal is to determine whether the federal government should pass off existing land ownership to individual states. The act — signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt — enables the acting president to classify federal areas of land and water as national monuments to protect them from drilling, mining, and development. It essentially gives the president authority to preserve lands with historical, cultural, and ecological significance without having to seek Congress's approval.

“Today, I am signing a new executive order to end another egregious abuse of federal power and to give that power back to the states and to the people where it belongs,” Trump said at the signing. “Today we’re putting the states back in charge. It’s a big thing.”

President Barack Obama set a record for creating the most new national monuments of any president under the act. Under his administration, an array of historical and cultural landmarks were granted sanctuary: 123 acres in Hawaii remembering WWII-era Japanese internment camps, 120 acres in honor of labor and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, 7.7 acres in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood that includes LGBTQ landmark Stonewall Inn and 11,750 acres in Maryland celebrating Harriet Tubman.

Trump's signed executive order notes that the review applies to federally designated lands that have been protected by the act since 1996, and are 100,000 acres or larger. The latter is both good and bad. Good news: It means historical landmarks (like internment camps and the Stonewall Inn) are too small in size to be at risk under Trump’s review. Bad news: it’s targeting areas with ecological importance.

By going back 21 years, every designation between the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996 to Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 will be assessed. There's a lot of land at stake for review: Obama’s administration alone preserved 1.35 million acres in Utah, more than 700,000 acres in New Mexico, more than one million acres in Nevada, 4,913 square miles of marine waters off the coast of New England, and more than two million acres in California, according to an analysis by Business Insider. Their report also noted that Obama expanded on the work of his predecessors by adding 442,781 square miles to President George W. Bush’s creation of a marine protected area near Hawaii, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which is the largest marine conservation area in the world and home to 23 species currently protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, including Hawksbill, Leatherback, Olive Ridley, and Loggerhead turtles. Obama also added 1,665 acres to President Bill Clinton’s protection of California’s coast.

At the root of the issue is Utah, where the federal government owns 63 percent of the land. Before leaving office, President Obama protected over a million acres of land in the Bears Ears National Monument — a move that received criticism from Republican lawmakers in Utah including Senator Orrin Hatch, who brought the issue to Trump’s attention. Those against Obama’s designation (like Utah Governor Gary Herbert, Representatives Jason Chaffetz and Chris Stewart, and Senator Hatch) argue presidential overreach, and have asked the Trump administration to reverse the designation and hold funds. Those in favor of the national monument statuses worry about companies destroying the land for its natural resources.

The April 26 executive order does not directly mean all preserved land will be losing their privileges, but it does open the door for the government to revoke national monument status on crucial chunks of land based on potential ulterior political and financial motives.

Environmental activists have voiced their disapproval of Trump’s new order. “The Antiquities Act, along with other tools like National Parks designation, have kept intact the jewels that define the American landscape,” World Wildlife Fund president and CEO Carter Roberts said in a statement. “As the rest of the world increases the protection of landscapes and seascapes fundamental to their cultures and economies, this is no time for us to begin revisiting such provisions as a way of stripping those protections in the future.”

On June 26, the U.S. Commerce Department made a forum for comment available to the public for those wish to respond to Trump's ordered review of protected monuments and sanctuaries, which could eventually reduce protections and open the areas to oil and gas exploration, according to the Washington Post. Written comments and suggestions can be submitted electronically until July 26.